Festival of Banners

We’re dealing with some kind of stomach/cough situation in the house, so things have slowed down a bit. I also am digging into some old writing from a book I had hoped to finish about 6 years ago. So far things are going in a good direction. I get to drop off my painting “War Baby: Quality Control” to the SBMA for art around bend this weekend and I’m working on submission for the festival of banners. I had hoped that would be a festival of Bruce Banners in various stages of Hulkification, but it seems they are the kind of banners one would hang or put on a website or something. I’m not done with it yet, but this is saying what I want to say I think. The first baby I drew was the one in the flak helmet, and as I worked more that one became less like the rest. In addition to that, I changed the skin tone and the color of the t-shirt for the final two drawings. I think it needs one more image in the cycle, but I may just do the color correction and redraw the baby with the grenade and then focus on the background. I think red is the right color, but it’s easy to change it digitally and see what other hues do.

Painting for a million occasions.

Somehow I finally had the guts to pull my novel in progress out from beneath my desk this week. I revised the opening chapter (or what I see as the opening chapter right now), and I actually sent it out for consideration. In addition to that, I have had about a thousand ideas for paintings. I have been able to get a few of those ideas down on 11x17 watercolor paper as sketches, and I am grateful that I’ve been able to do that. I know that I need to work larger than that, and I have struggled a bit with letting the 12x12 requirement of a local contest force me to try to work in that size. If I had something that small that I wanted to share, then that’s when I should submit to something like that. I do not have anything that size right now. So I am going to stop trying to force it.

I finally was able to see my oldest daughter in an environment where she was “in the moment” so much that I captured her true spirit in a photo. This was done using a technique that I learned from James Gurney. I used gesso on top of the pencil sketch, and then I used oil paint on top of that. I’m hopeful to have this one completed enough that I can give it to my wife as a birthday gift. Fortunately I bought a couple things to make sure she gets something even if I’m not done with this in time. I can’t get the orange of the jersey right, but I’m not surprised by this considering I’ve never mixed that color with oils before. I could change the color to something else, but the contrast between blue and orange in the jerseys looks good. I don’t like painting geometric shapes onto spheres, so I am probably not going to do much more to the ball than what I’ve done aside from adding a bit more shading to give it more roundness. I had the number on the orange jersey before, but I did it too soon before I had any of the folds and one of the shoulders was wonky, so I’ll have to do it again. Other than that, all I may change will be to get some branches and things into the background to get some more depth in the painting.

And, of course, there will still be more and more paintings dealing with war-related stuff. Isn’t mothers’ day coming up soon too? I might start just doing stuff with a palette knife so I can’t blend anything into mud. That might help me to get things done faster. Will they be better? Maybe not. But at least there will be more of it.

War Baby: Day at the Beach

I was able to get some decent beach reference photos while on our trip (some great wedding pictures too), and I plan to do some paintings of the kids and my family from our trip, but I am also still very much seeing the children in the flak helmets in the drawings I do, so I’ll just keep at it until I run out of interest. My plan with these paintings is to start submitting to some contests and galleries within the next couple of weeks. I was doing some stuff in watercolor, but when it comes to these war paintings I have found it difficult to do what I want to do unless I use opaque paint. This one is acrylic over a watercolor and pencil sketch. It was done so that it’ll fall within the 12x12 size guidelines for a local contest. I don’t like working this small, but I decided it would be an opportunity to create an artificial deadline since that can often help me to light a fire and get some things done that I may otherwise spend too long fiddling around with.

War Baby: Day at the Beach is below. This one seems more like a war “toddler”, but I think it’s doing what it’s supposed to do. A couple things might change on this one if I go back to it, but I am really trying to follow my own advice and let these things go so that I can move on and make something new.

Mother and Son Dance

I worked a bit on a painting of my brother dancing with my mom yesterday and finished it up as far as I want to take it. I definitely feel like I’ve reached a point where I feel a lot better about getting to a point with a painting that says all I want to say and then stopping because I’m finished. There are things I would change, and I think that would be the case for eternity. So rather than pushing and pulling forever, I will step back, say “Good enough” and then move on to the next one. This is, of course, a position that I am in because these things are not commissions and as a result it doesn’t matter what someone else wants from the paintings.

I did this one on gessoed watercolor paper, a technique I stopped using for a while, and I am glad that I did it that way. This was a moment I captured where my brother and mom were dancing to Country Roads at the reception. It was a very happy moment for me, and I wanted to make sure I did this so that, hopefully, it will remind them of how wonderful that night was.

Back from the Beach

I didn’t get a ton of time to paint this past week because I was on SPring Break with my family and got to be the best man in my little brother’s wedding, so even though I was feeling pretty restless in regard to art-making, it was for a really good reason that I didn’t get much done. Fortunately camera phones exist so I was at least able to get a lot of pictures that I’m able to use as references. One of my favorite days in Sarasota was spent on the beach and then Kayaking after lunch at a Colombian restaurant. We paddled through mangroves and when we were on open-water, birds dove under us and swam around searching for fish. We saw a few catch and swallow their meals, and it was really a great time.

This watercolor I did yesterday in the little time I had to work, and I was able to take this pose and turn it into a painting that will be added into the War Babies series that I’m working on currently. I made headway on that one this morning as well, but didn’t have a chance to take a picture of it yet. There’s a gallery show in Michigan soon, and they need 12x12 art. So that one is 12x12 and as of this moment it is the one I’ll submit for that show. I’ll also get the info for the show and post that later along with a picture of the painting in progress or completed.

The Aloft show in downtown South Bend is coming up soon as well, but I need to find out dimension requirements for that one before I submit anything, and if I need to do something smaller then I’ll have to get on that too.

It feels very good to be back home even though the week has been so nuts. Soccer is upon us now, and it seems every single evening requires me to drive my kids around right about the time they’d normally be sitting down for dinner. All I can do is pray we don’t become a McDonald’s family. Maybe I can just get a portable microwave for the van.

Waiting for the Enemy: Illustrated

I made some more headway on this cover for the illustrated version. I did a lot of it on my iPad directly which went a lot better than I’d anticipated. This cover is more graphic design heavy than my work is normally, but I think, if nothing else, that this looks and feels a lot more like the cover should be than the one I did based off the watercolor painting I did the other day. The thing I like about working on covers in this way is that I can just keep on adjusting it without needing to start over from scratch if I take some risks that don’t work out. I’m not sure where it’ll go from here, but this will be the way I go.

War Babies.

I am currently at work on some commission stuff, but I am also still working through these war baby ideas. I had an idea yesterday that I didn’t have much time to mess with until today. I want to do it as a physical painting, but I was already working digital today so I just kept after it.

This is a digital painting, and I hope to do a physical version eventually. The title is “Baby Steps”.

Bookcon 2024 Report

This was the only picture that Penelope was looking in the direction of the camera, but I think it captures the mood.

I am extremely thankful Tina and the girls helped me make Bookcon a priority this year. It’s been such a long time since I wrote anything that wasn’t aimed at making my kids laugh that I’d forgotten I had a bunch of other interests in the world of letters. I’ve talked with my friend Hugh J. Martin (a veteran and poet friend of mine) about coincidence in the past, and I do believe many of the “crazy” interactions we have in our lives probably aren’t all that crazy to anyone other than ourselves. But yesterday, my table was beside Jim and Marianne Zarzana’s. They were both great to talk to, and I’m grateful that is where Grace Downey and the crew at the library put me because meeting both of them made the day a lot more enjoyable.

The crazy coincidence of the say was not that I was seated next to writers at a book convention, but when Jim and Marianne left to teach a workshop for an hour, their friend sat-in for them to sell their books until they returned. Tom O'Grady was his name, and we chatted a bit about this and that before Flann O’Brien came up. I can’t remember how we got onto the subject, but Flann is one of the writers who helped get me through my Ph. D when I was nearing my wits’ end. O’Grady was not only a fan of O’Brien, but he’d written articles about him, and then he pointed me to The Parish Review where he has at least one article online currently (something about a pub O’Brien was banned from it seems; I wanted to read it yesterday, but when Bookcon was over, it was quickly apparent that I still had 3 kids and my wife had a conference she needed to pack for; reality dropped the hammer on me quick and hard). Then O’Grady mentioned that a friend of his had just recently completed an Irish language biography of Flann O’Brien and that this friend works at Notre Dame. So it seems there may be more Flann O’Brien in my future.

Okay, fine, Hugh. So you say this is no big deal. That could happen to anyone.

Then O’Grady brings up my military experience to see if I might be interested in learning that one of his daughters (of which he has 3, just like I do), happens to be a correspondent for The Washington Post for the war in Ukraine. Of course I was interested because I am in the process of returning to writing and making art about war and to have more information about the people it is affecting currently will help me to do a much better job of understanding it so that I can do my job better—be it in fiction, nonfiction or painting. So, offhand, I mentioned that I’ve been reading a writer recommended by my friend, Hugh. The writer is Luke Mogelsson, and O’Grady says, “Oh. My daughter is friends with him.” Now it is not surprising that two writers living in Kyiv writing about the war know one another because I assume there are only a few places where journalists stay, but still, it was a nice coincidence to hear that too.

Talking to a stranger about common interests was, of course, not the main goal of the conference, but I never would’ve had this opportunity to have this interaction if a bunch of things outside my control had not happened exactly as they did. The one thing that was essential for me to do in order to make this happen was for me to sign on as a participant in Bookcon and then for me to be there in the seat. It is a coincidence that I was seated next to a man with 3 daughters, who wrote about Flann O’Brien and whose daughter is friends with a writer whose work I am a fan of, and that this man was merely sitting at the table because he was “pinch sitting” (as he liked to say) for his friends while they taught a free workshop at the South Bend Public Library. But had I not said hello, asked questions, and then answered his with honest engagement then surely my time at Bookcon wouldn’t have meant as much.

I don’t want to merely spend time talking about coincidence because there was a lot of good that happened yesterday. My wife and daughters stopped by to say hello. I was glad to disappoint my daughters when I told them I hadn’t sold any books yet. I did walk away with more money than I entered Bookcon with, but I gave more copies to people I chatted with than I sold. Not a good business model, I know. But yesterday what I got more than anything else was a sense of the community that is right here in Michiana that I would not have known about if I had stayed at home.

A great moment was when Dan Breen of Pan-O-Ply stopped by the table to share the current issue with me and let me know that it is a magazine dedicated to local writers and artists. Since my main goal currently is to be involved in art and writing locally, there wasn’t a better person to meet. If you are a local artist or writer then you should check out their website and submit something. I will be soon. First I need to tackle a couple commissions so that my plate is cleared off before summer arrives and my kids start staring at me with wild-eyed wonder and saying, “Daddy, I’m bored,” at 6 a.m.

I don’t now that the folks who stopped at the table want their names scribbled onto the internet, so I will just say I had a few great conversations with people. A couple counseling students came by and gave me a lot of hope for the future with the way they talked about their goals, both of them working toward their degrees while mothering small children. I tip my hat to them because studying is tough enough when you don’t have little ones dependent on you. I talked to an ROTC student attending Notre Dame who plans to go to medical school after finishing her degree in Neuroscience, and I was again given hope for the future because anytime someone who is healthy, intelligent and hard-working chooses to serve the country in that way it reminds me that no matter what things may seem like if you watch network news; good people are doing good things in the world to keep the wolves at bay.

Another great moment was when a woman stopped by with her friends and (husband?) to chat a little, and I found out that her husband worked on A-10s. Those are, and likely always will be, my favorite planes. So it was cool to be able to talk about them for a little while. Yes a coincidence, but this also happened to me once when the guy installing my garage doors let me know that he was in the Air National Guard and is a crew chief for an A-10. There was a squadron based here in Indiana, but I believe they are getting shipped someplace else and being replaced with F-16s. Maybe that’s a story for another time.

Lastly Adam stopped by to talk. He is the library’s social media-er. I don’t know the full job title, but I do know that he had something pretty great to say about advertising. He and I commiserated about how gross it feels to “sell” yourself, but what he said was that doing social media work for this Bookcon and other library events was great because he gets to tell people about things that are free. And that made me pretty happy too.

It took a lot of people to make this event happen, and I’m grateful to them for their work. We are lucky to have such great libraries here in St. Joseph County, and we’re lucky the folks who work there are so engaged in bringing people in the community together to show that we have a lot of interesting stuff going on. It is a big world and there is a lot to be seen out there, but don’t forget to look around where you live too. There’s a lot more worth looking at in your backyard than the internet would like you to think.

Bookcon 2024 Saturday, 11-3

Tomorrow is Bookcon at the Main Branch Library Downtown. Click the Bookcon logo to see all the details at the SJCPL official website.

I have one more illustration that I hope to complete before I pack everything up for tomorrow. But as of this moment, I have quite a few things to show in addition to the copies of two of my books.

I’ll be selling my essay collection Operation Iraqi Freedom is My Fault, and I’ll be selling my book of fiction Battle Rattle and Other Stories (that book includes my Kindle Single Best Selling books Waiting for the Enemy and Battle Rattle as well as the novel High Desert Rats). All of the work is related to war and its effects on the families that participate in it. That’s what I spent most of my time writing about before my children were born, and now that I’m starting to get back into writing, it appears I wasn’t finished thinking and writing about that subject.

This is one of my war baby watercolors. Why War Babies one might ask. If I knew then I would probably stop making them.

The books will be 10 dollars tomorrow in person. Battle Rattle and Other Stories can be bought on Amazon for $14.99 at any time, but in order to get a copy of Operation Iraqi Freedom is My Fault, which is no longer in print, this will be the your only chance for a while. I have plans to try and get it republished in the future, but until then, these are the last ten copies that I possess. I will take cash, but I won’t have any change. So Venmo, PayPal, and Apple Pay all work for me if you don’t have a ten dollar bill, or a combination of bills that add up to ten dollars.

Watercolors and sketches are for sale as well. I’ll probably have a painting on display behind me from my War Babies series; that will be for sale too, and all oil paintings are 3 dollars per square inch. I’ll have it marked so you won’t need to bring a ruler and a calculator. Any pencil sketch is 60 dollars. Watercolors in 11x17 are $375. 12x18 is $435. One of these days I’ll have prints available, but for the time this is what I have and this is how it goes. I’m happy to discuss commissions too.

There is some stuff in the binders that is violent, so don’t let your young kids flip through there unless you’re okay with them seeing some comic book style violence. None of it is photorealistic or anything, but I don’t want kids to think they’re going to see Peppa Pig or something. This watercolor of the camel wrapped in Razor Wire is an example of the most extreme stuff in there.

Oh, and finally. If you do purchase one of the sketches or watercolors, then I’ll arrange to get it to you sealed and protected. I will not be able to hand it to you immediately tomorrow unless you are willing to risk walking out with it as is. If you buy it, and you choose to take it out of there unprotected, it’s on you. I am not responsible for it getting destroyed once you have paid me and received it. I’m sorry, but these are one of a kind, and that means if you destroy it, then it is gone forever.

I am working on some projects that do not have anything to do with war now, but it’s unlikely that I’ll ever be able to walk away from the subject completely. I would imagine that each generation believes their war is the last one. How could anyone ever be so stupid as to go to war again after X? Well, it has happened again and again, and I can’t recall who it was that Kurt Vonnegut was talking to at that cocktail party about anti-war books, but they were right. Anti-glacier books are the way to go if you want to write books that people can link to actual change.

I’m very grateful to Grace Downey for putting this event on, and I look forward to meeting some other writers in the community as well as talking with anyone who has the time and interest to stop by. I’ll be sketching, selling, signing, talking, and probably snacking at some point. Feel free to come by and flip through the portfolios and ask me questions or just chat about whatever. I’ll be there from 11-3. You don’t have to buy anything to talk to me. I promise.




Bosnian Roulette Illustration

Since “Book Con” is this Saturday, March 23rd from 11-3 p.m. , I have decided to illustrate one of my stories each day leading up to the event with the hope of doing all five from my collection Waiting for the Enemy prior to book con so that I have them with me for folks to look at in person when they come by. I’m not sure I’ll color them all. I am not totally sure what compelled me to color this one, but I started it, so now I have to finish it.

The goal will be to do these and then re-release Waiting for the Enemy as an illustrated version sometime before Christmas of this year. I’m not going to hard commit to that since I have other projects and kids and a wife and a dog and a cat and I believe I have friends that I should see once in a while. Anyway. I’ll find an excuse not to complete it on time.

War Baby (Quality Control) In Art Around the Bend

The Folks at the South Bend Museum of Art chose this painting as the one to include in the show later this year. I’ll post the rest of the details about the show later, but it’s going to have work by 75 artists from around the area, so it’s a great opportunity for people to see what kind of work is being made in our community. Of course I’d be honored if anyone went to check out my work in person, but it would also just be a good chance to show your kids that there are a ton of ways to make art that don’t look like Disney, Illumination or whatever. I’m not bashing those places; I am trying to make sure that my kids know that they can make art and that if doesn’t look like someone else’s style guide requires, that doesn’t mean it is bad.

I don’t know what all will be in the show, but I do know it was open to all forms of media. So I’m looking forward to seeing what other local artists made. It’s been a rough stretch here, but knowing this will be displayed someplace where people can see it helps to lighten some of the dark spots we’ve had to endure.

Bridge and Sunset Study

I’m working on a logo for the Street Medicine South Bend organization and in conjunction with that, I’m working on a larger painting that hopefully captures the spirit of the organization’s goals. But in order to do that I need to do some bridges and sunsets. I had about 35 minutes yesterday, so I was able to get this done in that time.

The main lesson I learned here is that I need to get some new brushes.

Snailiarty Eats Too Many Mints

For a long time I was concerned with separating the things I did, and sectioning off different things I did to maintain some kind of arbitrary “professional” persona. I’m not sure why I was so concerned with that, but I am done. I make a lot of different types of things. Some of those things are silly, and some of them are not (they might all seem silly to some, but that’s not my concern.)

I wrote and illustrated a few books for my kids over the past years, and I turned one of those books into a cartoon that I posted on youtube. I’m posting that here so that people can see that it was something I did.

Part of the reason I want to do this is because I think it’s absurd to chop myself up into a bunch of pieces in order to present different selves in different places. I don’t want my kids to do that, so I’m not going to model it anymore.

If you want to check out Snailiarty Eats Too Many Mints, voice acting by myself and my daughters, then here you go. It was, and is, one of my favorite things I’ve made with my kids over the years, and I don’t want to pretend that all I think about is war and the military despite writing and painting about it so much. Enjoy.


Submission for Art Around the Bend finished.

The deadline for submission for Art Around the Bend is March 1st, so I got it done. One of the 3 paintings I’ve submitted will be chosen for display at the museum for their local artist show later this year. So if you wanted a chance to see it in person and see some of the other work being shown by local artists, then you’ll have a chance to do that.

The three paintings I chose to submit are all military themed, and I guess it’s because that is what I have been working on and thinking about the most recently. They are all for sale, and you can contact me directly to arrange that.

If you buy the one that is selected to be displayed in the museum for the show, then I won’t be able to deliver it until after the show is over.

One Veteran’s Life #1

War Baby: Quality Control

Raid (For Hugh J. Martin